Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 5:13

"Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men." — Matthew 5:13 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: After He had given His Apostles such sublime precepts—so much greater than the precepts of the Law—He soothed their fears so they would not be dismayed and ask, “How can we possibly fulfill these things?” He did this by mixing praise with His instructions, saying, You are the salt of the earth. This shows them how necessary these precepts were.

This doctrine is committed to you not merely for your own salvation or for a single nation, but for the whole world. Therefore, it is not for you to flatter and deal smoothly with people, but, on the contrary, to be rough and biting as salt is. When you are reviled for offending people by rebuking them, rejoice, for this is the proper effect of salt: to be harsh and grating to the depraved palate. Thus, the evil-speaking of others will bring you no harm, but will instead be a testimony to your firmness.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The appropriateness of our Lord's language can be seen here by considering the office of the Apostles and the nature of salt. Salt, which people use for almost every purpose, preserves from decay those bodies that are sprinkled with it. In this function, as well as in its flavor as a seasoning, the parallel is most exact.

The Apostles are preachers of heavenly things and are, as it were, salting them with eternity. They are rightly called the salt of the earth, because by the power of their teaching, they salt and preserve bodies for eternity.

Remigius of Auxerre: Moreover, salt is changed into another kind of substance by three means: water, the heat of the sun, and the breath of the wind. In the same way, the apostolic men were also changed into spiritual regeneration by the water of baptism, the heat of love, and the breath of the Holy Spirit. The heavenly wisdom that the Apostles preached also dries up the humors of carnal works, removes the foulness and decay of evil conduct, kills the work of lustful thoughts, and also that worm of which it is said, their worm dieth not (Isaiah 66:24).

The Apostles are the salt of the earth—that is, of worldly people who are called “the earth” because they love this earth.

St. Jerome: Or, it is because the whole human race is seasoned by the Apostles.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: When a teacher is adorned with all the preceding virtues, he is then like good salt, and his whole people are salted by seeing and hearing him.

Remigius of Auxerre: It should be known that in the Old Testament, no sacrifice was offered to God unless it was first sprinkled with salt, for no one can present an acceptable sacrifice to God without the flavor of heavenly wisdom.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: And because humanity is always liable to change, He therefore warns the Apostles, who have been called the salt of the earth, to continue steadfast in the power committed to them, when He adds, If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?

St. Jerome: That is, if the teacher has erred, by what other teacher shall he be corrected?

St. Augustine of Hippo: If you, by whom the nations are to be salted, lose the kingdom of heaven through fear of temporal persecution, who is there to correct your error? Another manuscript says, If the salt have lost all sense, showing that they must be considered to have lost their sense who, by either pursuing abundance or fearing a lack of temporal goods, lose those eternal goods which people can neither give nor take away.¹

St. Hilary of Poitiers: But if the teachers, having become senseless and having lost all the savor they once enjoyed, are unable to restore soundness to corrupt things, they have become useless and are thenceforth fit only to be cast out and trodden by men.

St. Jerome: The illustration is taken from agriculture. Although salt is necessary for seasoning meats and preserving flesh, it has no further use. Indeed, we read in Scripture of vanquished cities being sown with salt by the victors, so that nothing would grow there from that time on.

Glossa Ordinaria: Therefore, when those who are the leaders have fallen away, they are fit for no use but to be cast out from the office of teacher.²

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or even cast out from the Church's storerooms to be trodden underfoot by those who walk by.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It is not the one who suffers persecution who is trodden underfoot by people, but the one who falls away through fear of it. For we can only tread on what is below us, but a person is in no way below us who, however much they may suffer in the body, still has their heart fixed in heaven.

1. Serm. in Mont., i, 6
2. ap. Anselm